Two weeks after the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad, Syria's incoming leader, Mr Bashar Assad, has given the first tentative indications of a slightly more flexible approach to peacemaking.
In talks with the visiting UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, Mr Assad is said to have expressed a readiness to conclude a peace treaty with Israel at any time, provided that the international border between the two countries is drawn along the line that divided them before the 1967 Israel-Arab war, restoring the entire Golan Heights to Syrian rule.
Israel and Syria had been involved in intensive peace talks until January, but they broke down in argument over the border line, and in March, at a summit meeting with President Clinton, Hafez al-Assad balked at a US formula for resuming the effort.
Reporting on his meeting with Mr Bashar Assad in Damascus yesterday, Mr Annan said that the transition of power to the 34-year-old eye-doctor was "going smoothly in the country, and there is no need for the suspension of the peace process if there are serious proposals". The Syrian Foreign Minister, Mr Farouq al-Shara, elaborated that Damascus was "looking forward" to resuming the talks, where they had broken off, "on the basis of the Madrid terms of reference and the land-for-peace formula".
The significance of this formulation is that Syria is not demanding an Israeli commitment to a withdrawal to the 1967 lines as a precondition for a return to the negotiating table.
With Mr Bashar Assad expected to be sworn in as president within the next few weeks, it is conceivable that a resumption of the peace effort may be just around the corner.
The Israeli government is also keen to restart the peace effort with Syria, and to accelerate negotiations with the Palestinians.
The Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, on Thursday resolved a long-running coalition crisis, but at a price, losing the left-wing Meretz party from government, and giving a more central role to the ultra-Orthodox Shas, whose political leader, Mr Eli Yishai, has been offered the position of deputy prime minister.
Opinion polls in yesterday's papers indicated public disenchantment with Mr Barak's handling of the crisis, showing his popularity equal to or even slightly below that of the man he replaced, the former Likud leader, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu. In this climate, and given that Shas is not the most reliable of political partners, Mr Barak needs to produce dividends on the diplomatic front.
Unconfirmed reports from US sources claim that Mr Barak is preparing a permanent peace deal with the Palestinians that would involve granting the Palestinian Authority partial control in Jerusalem, more than 90 per cent of the West Bank, and sovereignty in the Jordan Valley extending all the way east to the border with Jordan.
A US-drafted "non-paper" setting out the terms of this deal was published yesterday in the mass-selling Yediot Ahronot, but was promptly ridiculed by Mr Barak's aides.